Piano in the park

September 8
After classes, we rushed over to the train station to pick up Tom. Everybody made little signs welcoming him to Swaebish Hall. He wasn't expecting such a greeting and was surprised to see us. We walked him back to his hotel, which is a restaurant and hotel right on the central square of the town. Its a really nice place, but being right next to the town bells with be annoying I bet.
I don't think I mentioned yet how annoying the bells are. I know there's one at 600 or 630 in the morning, but I rarely hear that one. I keep my window shut at night so that one doesn't wake me up. There are some other bells at almost random times through the day. They're not even always on the hour. The 700 pm bells are the worst though, they ring for a full five minutes every day.
We ate dinner at Tom's hotel and I had something like hash browns with slices of tomatoes and cheese on top. It wasn't bad, I even ate the tomatoes. Two of the girls ordered an Italian dish that sounded like a steak salad. It turned out to be some paper-thin pieces of raw tasting meat with a few leaves of lettuce on top. Neither of them liked it, so everybody else gave it a try; it was awful.
We took a walk down to the park and found something unexpected. There was a big crowd of people there and a guy playing the piano (with speakers and everything set up). When we got there he was playing Elton John songs, and he was doing a really good job of it. He was also singing in English so that was neat too. It was just a nice evening in the park and we stayed there for a couple hours until he was done playing around 10. He played a little Billy Joel, Robbie Williams, Phil Collins and Stevie Wonder. I think the guy's name was Donavon Aston. I really had a good time there sitting on a little hill and listening.
We went to the town square and all the buildings are lit up really nicely so we took a few pictures and just talked there. After a while it was time to do my homework and get to bed.